Vehicle seats can be configured to provide a flow of air through the seating surface to enhance environmental comfort of the seat occupant by virtue of the movement of air in the vicinity of the seat occupant's physical contact with the seating surface, which is typically hotter or colder than the seat occupant desires, particularly when the seat occupant is initially seated on especially hot or cold days. Such ventilated vehicle seats may be configured to flow air past a heat exchanger in the seat to heat or cool the air before it is forced out of the seat through the seating surface as conditioned air to provide desired thermal comfort to the seat occupant.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. RE38,128 to Gallup et al. discloses a vehicle seat with a climate control system including individual heat pumps associated with the seat bottom and with the seat back. Dedicated fans blow air through each of the heat pumps, then along air channels inside the seat, and finally out of the seat through the seating surface. The seat back and seat bottom are separately controllable. The heat pumps may include thermoelectric modules that selectively heat or cool the air before it passes through the seating surface. Additional fans are provided to separately blow air along opposite sides of the thermoelectric modules. Heat energy is thus transferred to and from both opposite sides of the thermoelectric modules by forced convection only.